Slideshow: The New Littles Artist Maps

Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 10:00 AM

To wrap up our New Littles project, the Brian Lehrer Show asked local artists and illustrators to represent the various new neighborhoods we'd discussed on a map. Not knowing what to expect, we put out a call for entries and waited. The response was incredible, full of talent, inventiveness and community spirit. Check out the entries below, and be sure to visit the artist's website to support their work - many of the pieces are even for sale! Thanks to all for participating in The New Littles.

I make quilted maps of cities that are personalized to represent someone's unique place in the world- tactile heirlooms that are usually gifts for newborn babies ("Littles"). I had an old map of Queens in the studio, and I transformed it into my Littles map of the borough. The profiles of different national borders are hand-embroidered in the location of highest population density (ie- Greece in Astoria, Poland in Greenpoint); these profiles are accompanied by the ethnic food typically associated with that neighborhood (ie- Roti in Guyana-centric Ozone Park, Dim Sum in Flushing). Queens is basically the UN of delicious food, and I stopped short of adding every single treat I wanted... The quilt took two days to complete.

I received a BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design in 98’. I live & work as an artist in Brooklyn creating intimate watercolor paintings of maps and food. My work has been shown nationally in museums and galleries & I was most recently commissioned to make a menu for an intimate dinner celebrating Alice Waters (which was an enormous thrill!) My paintings are meant to be enjoyed, to be life enhancing. Art should be accessible to everyone, to be lived with and shared. A little about my process: "It is about consumption. I get to look and digest how things are made: the silkiness of the ribbon, the details of lace, and the shininess of packaging. My work is about desire, and the question, what makes us want things. To better understand that human impulse of desire." I am also a waitress at Vinegar Hill House in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn. Over the years, restaurants have played a major role in my work, fueling my love of food and my education. When I heard about the “little’s” project I was thrilled. An excuse to go on an adventure and eat things! It was right up my alley. A map of little Thailand was a natural choice for me, I love Thai food & I wanted to taste more. I knew that once I started to scratch the surface of the neighborhood I would find lots of treasures. Which I did. The color palate of the map is based off a photo of a night market in Patpong; red, pink & green are some of my most favorite pairings of colors. I wanted to draw a connection between where the people from little Thailand are coming from & also where they are now in Queens. The Thai Garuda emblem anchors the map on the left hand side, dancing with outstretched wings. The Garuda is the National emblum of Thailand, it represents the government and people of Thailand. I also painted Thailand itself as a reference on the map. This map is to inspire, to spark an interest in people to go and see and find for themselves what is in Elmhurst. What is literally in their backyard. All the streets and public transportation are listed as a guide. I chose 4 places to be destinations spots with delicious rewards. Suggestions for what to eat is written in between the street names.The rest is up to you.One of the most striking aspects of this project was how nondescript these places are. You would never know how good they were if you were just walking by. Which I love, nothing is ever what it seems. My art is all about discovery.

New Littles by Freecell - Lauren Crahan, John Hartmann, and Jacqueline Lavin

Our map is an attempt to represent the ethnic diversity throughout the five boroughs. We mapped the locations of twenty four ethnic groups in the city from the database provided by WNYC. The drawing uses the extrusion of each ethnic boundary to form a collection of building prototypes and monuments associated with each group. We depicted each ethic neighborhood with its respective vernacular or contemporary architecture found in the home country. The buildings are color-coded and labeled with flags that can be read and identified in the key at the top of the map. In the process of drawing the map, the densities of groups begin to inform clusters of small ethnic structures. Entwining conditions pop up in and around the city as the the Great Wall runs through the Greek Islands and around a bit of German modernism. With the explosion of groups at disparate parts of the city, paths connect structure to structure to identify a common ethnicity within the complex network that is New York.

Using the interactive map, I charted in all the New Littles I could on my drawing of a greater New York City map. The New Little neighborhoods are written with the flag colors of their respective countries. In some cases I tried to express a calligraphic style of a the nations with specific fonts, alphabets, and characters (Cyrillic, Chinese, etc.) The balance of the city, with neighborhoods not comprising +20% of one nationality, was drawn in with neutral gray ink (Brooklyn, NY, etc.) My intention was to show a riotous accumulation of languages creating a geographic texture. This took several days, and I questioned my sanity as I neared the project's completion, but I was generally happy with the result.

Being a Brooklyn based illustrator, of course I was drawn to the littles near me. I created my map using pen and ink, which I find best suits my style of simple lines. I love to explore all of the many neighborhoods in the city - all of the different foods, music and languages - but drawing this map of Brooklyn reminded me just how rich and culturally diverse the place I live in is. My suggestion to your audience is to jump on the subway and take advantage of the many worlds just next door.

I choose this little Mexico because it is around my neighborhood. My medium was to use a google map and place Mexican themes on it. The piece took as long as two days. I learned that Mexican heritage is spreading across the bronx and I want them to learn mexican traits such as the sugar bread, dogs and festivals.

I tried to include as many ethnicities, but I know there are so much more. Knowing where most are located now, I hope to find where the best food of each country is. Although, I originate from NJ, I only concentrated in New York City regions. A NJ map of littles would be for another day. My map is digitally drawn in Illustrator and Photoshop.

My work is about being the story - stories that had been passed down by our oral tradition. Some of them are passed down to praise the people who have the power above us, some of them are forced to be the truth, and some of them are told much earlier than it happened. To me, there is no true story or fiction. Once a story is told, it all depends on the story teller and the audience. The most important part of storytelling is neither about narrating nor illustrating what happened, but becoming the story itself so we can go further into it until the story becomes a part of ourselves. Storytelling is not a mere entertainment. If we want to continue creating our false glories and history, we have to keep making up so many tales and they will eventually become facts. As a painter, I work with a traditional narrative way to present my vision to people. I am actually being the images from my head when I am creating them. I want to tell stories whether they will be accepted or denied. This is going to be the story of myself.

I live on west side and love it. It's like a small town but more fun. I tried to emphasis its mix of artists, latinos and lovers. The art is pen and ink with opaque watercolor, and this piece took 2 days.

I processed and visualized the data through a combination of GIS (ESRI ArcMap), Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I categorized the nationalities according to 6 regions and assigned each a color scheme: Asia (Green), Europe, Africa/Middle East(Red), North America(Blue), Caribbean(Pink) and South America(Purple). I used some of my own photographs to highlight ethnicities and lanmarks in my favorite regions of Brooklyn and Manhattan(sorry to play favorites). I think it is interesting to see the sheer diversity of communities although it is also the overwhelming presence of Carribean cultures. I found it fascinating to include European ethnicities which I haven't had the chance to represented in Ethnic Census map.

The "New Littles" grabbed my attention. The topic made me focus on the gentrification in the Brooklyn area of Lefferts Gardens. In the past ten years, we have experienced gradual inflow of people, but between 2010 -2011 over 35% of the people who moved in are mostly Caucasians, who according to the saying are able to live on their monthly dividends. This means the old timers in the neighborhood are having a difficult time coping financially from the higher cost of living, which at times is caused from businesses taking advantage of the situation to make more money. This work took about 5 - 6 hours, and is made with drawing paper, collage, artists pen/ink, and color pencils.

bernie from bklynknow what i like? i like real journalism. the kind of journalism that brian lehrer is GREAT at practicing. cutesy little segmants are fine and appropriate sometimes but jeez, there's so many important events happening right now that it seems kind of ridiculous to do segment like this at this time.

know what i like? i like real journalism. the kind of journalism that brian lehrer is GREAT at practicing. cutesy little segmants are fine and appropriate sometimes but jeez, there's so many important events happening right now that it seems kind of ridiculous to do segment like this at this time.

this had been one of my favorite conversations on WNYC. I love the "NewLittles" and gave it a big shout out on my business facebook and twitter. I want all the "NewLittles" to be a financial success for the business owners and a happy place for all of us to visit!

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